ROMANIA BETWEEN OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN A EUROPEAN UNION OF CONTROVERSIES
Autor (i): Ph.D. Professor Romeo-Victor Ionescu
JEL: R11, R12, R13.
Cuvinte cheie: regional economic disparities; regional clusters; regional economic leader.
Abstract:
The paper deals to the idea that Balkan EU economies have to improve their position in the context of the new challenges for the EU. The analysis is focused on five representative indicators: GDP growth rate, gross fixed capital formation, unemployment rate, inflation rate and governmental gross debt and covers 2012-2018. The analysis is realized on three steps: a comparative analysis between the five indicators, a regression analysis in order to quantify the present and future regional disparities and a cluster analysis able to give a scientific approach to the regional development. One of the paper’s main conclusions is that the Balkan EU economies have to be analyzed using two cluster structures. In order to check this, the analysis uses clusters approach in 2016 and 2018. The second conclusion is that Romania presents the better economic performance during 20162018 and can become a regional economic leader. The analysis in the paper is based on the latest official statistic data, on pertinent tables and diagrams. The modeling procedures in the paper were supported by dedicated software IBM-SPSS.